


The lion and the gazelle

by GreenPhoenix



Category: Oz (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-21
Updated: 2014-09-21
Packaged: 2018-02-18 05:40:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2337209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenPhoenix/pseuds/GreenPhoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter Schibetta is in the psychward, after the season 2 finale seeing things. So is Simon. One of them is stronger.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The lion and the gazelle

His father is alive. He keeps telling himself that despite people saying he’s dead. Yesterday that guard said Dino was dead too. He can’t be. Peter saw him clearly in his cell, talking about his wife. He saw his own wife Rosalie, briefly. Was that yesterday? She looked so lovely in her red dress. He’s been in here since what they keep calling an “incident”. They use their most considerate voices for that. He remembers so little of that, a beast ripped out his heart and ate it. The beast lives in the cell next to him. That’s real too.

*

The beast is a man, a gigantic man with gleaming white teeth and a voice that keeps calling his name. Maybe it’s not really his name, more like “pretty” but well..he’s a man and men aren’t pretty. Women like his wife are pretty; the nun is pretty in her own way. She patiently tries to get him to tell his tale. Once a week is it? Maybe more. She hears him talk and nods, doesn’t push for more than he can give. He was in the cafeteria and Adebisi struck him and then it’s blackness and pain and his mind splinters and won’t leave more information.

*

Adebisi is the beast that haunts his dreams. He’s in the cell listening to drums only he can hear. He dances and touches himself until the guards make him stop. He talks to Peter all through he night, saying he misses his home and Jarra and some woman who tied him down. Complete nonsense. Then Adebisi talks of how he touched someone pretty and how his screams were like music. Peter won’t hear anything more. His father is with him, taking his hand. His father is dead, but more real to him than this dismal grey place. More real than being a victim of the man in the other cell.

*

He gets used to hearing Adebisi talk all through the night, it’s almost comforting to hear all those things in that melodic accent. He sings a little and Peter hums along. His father won’t approve, but he rarely shows. He sees Rosalie every second, more beautiful and real than anything else. Simon tells him he’s so very pretty and he supposes a man can be that. Being seen by someone can do that to you.

*

The nun tries to get him to recognize that he has done nothing wrong, that he had no part in the attack on him. He knows that too, but he won’t talk about it. His father told him that men don’t talk to women about their pain. He can’t, he needs to be strong for Rosalie.

*

Silence. For one night the beast is sleeping, not yelling or commanding attention as he always does. He sleeps and dreams of what happened in the cafeteria. It wasn’t his fault, but he still blames himself. He wakes and hears the beast call his name. He answers back. Simon tells him he’ll be a slave when he gets out, that no one will care for him. He supposes Simon has a point. He’s a prag now, isn’t that the word they use? He’ll have to fight to be more. Be stronger than he is. Simon is a lion; he’s a wounded gazelle and will have to run to escape when they get out. This place is full of lions.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Oz-prompt-athon 2014.


End file.
